Environmental moms stop at one child

FACTBOX

Most weekdays, Oona Baker picks up her daughter, Ramona,
from preschool and heads home to the Woodstock neighborhood.
The two eat lunch, then decide what's next. The
library? Or baking cookies? With no siblings to factor in,
mother and daughter map their own schedule.

"We're pretty minimal people," Baker, 34,
says. "We have a small house. We have a small car. We
can walk lots of places. Our life is just easier with one
child."

Not just easier, but greener.

In a city where people harvest rainwater, and bicycling to
work is a badge of green pride, some Portland families say
stopping at one child is global activism at its most
personal.

Nationwide, the percentage of women giving birth to just one
child has almost doubled, to 17.4 percent, during the past
three decades, according to U.S. Census figures from 2004,
the most recent data available. Some experts attribute the
trend to women giving birth later in life or a generational
shift in the expectations of family size.

"From my standpoint, having smaller families helps the
planet," Baker says. "There's already so many
people living on the Earth, that's one small thing that
we can do. It was a personal and bigger-scale choice at the
same time."

The environment isn't a common reason people limit
their families, but that might change as people recognize
the strain a bulging planet places on resources, says
Carolyn White, founder of online magazine Only Child.

"Look at what's happening in the food
supply," she says. "When I go to the market,
I'm appalled at how much things cost. It's not
just gasoline, it's everything. . . .

"One American child," she contends, "uses up
more natural resources than an entire village in Africa
(over) his lifetime."

Like any parenting decision, choosing how many kids to have is fraught with factors. Parents of onlies worry they're depriving their children of a built-in support network should illness or crises strike. They face judgmental relatives and others who assume their child will suffer socially....

Environmental moms stop at one child

FACTBOX

Most weekdays, Oona Baker picks up her daughter, Ramona,
from preschool and heads home to the Woodstock neighborhood.
The two eat lunch, then decide what's next. The
library? Or baking cookies? With no siblings to factor in,
mother and daughter map their own schedule.

"We're pretty minimal people," Baker, 34,
says. "We have a small house. We have a small car. We
can walk lots of places. Our life is just easier with one
child."

Not just easier, but greener.

In a city where people harvest rainwater, and bicycling to
work is a badge of green pride, some Portland families say
stopping at one child is global activism at its most
personal.

Nationwide, the percentage of women giving birth to just one
child has almost doubled, to 17.4 percent, during the past
three decades, according to U.S. Census figures from 2004,
the most recent data available. Some experts attribute the
trend to women giving birth later in life or a generational
shift in the expectations of family size.

"From my standpoint, having smaller families helps the
planet," Baker says. "There's already so many
people living on the Earth, that's one small thing that
we can do. It was a personal and bigger-scale choice at the
same time."

The environment isn't a common reason people limit
their families, but that might change as people recognize
the strain a bulging planet places on resources, says
Carolyn White, founder of online magazine Only Child.

"Look at what's happening in the food
supply," she says. "When I go to the market,
I'm appalled at how much things cost. It's not
just gasoline, it's everything. . . .

"One American child," she contends, "uses up
more natural resources than an entire village in Africa
(over) his lifetime."

Like any parenting decision, choosing how many kids to have is fraught with factors. Parents of onlies worry they're depriving their children of a built-in support network should illness or crises strike. They face judgmental relatives and others who assume their child will suffer socially....